Kfupm Anti-Virus Policy

The purpose of this policy is to describe the responsibilities of individuals, departments and the Information Technology Center (ITC) in protecting the KFUPM computer systems against virus infections. All users share an equal responsibility/participation for the protection of their computers and the university computers from infection by computer viruses. Please be advised that virus protection software is  good only if it has the latest virus definitions.

All KFUPM users are required to install the Corporate Edition of Anti-virus to keep their PCs protected from viruses. ITC is not responsible for any system crashes, data loss or system instability related to virus attacks if there is no Antivirus installed on that affected PC. ITC supports the following two Corporate Antivirus solutions for desktops. Users are required to install any ONE of them)

[Recommended for Office PCs]

• Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 8.0 (Click here if you have not yet installed)

[Recommended for Faculty Home/DSL PCs]

• Trend Micro Office Scan 8.0, Vista Compatible (Click here if you have not yet installed)

ITC Responsibilities

• Negotiate campus site-licenses for virus protection software that result in cost effective and efficient solutions for campus units.

• Work with participating departments to install virus software on all computers.

• Assist individuals with recovery from infections by providing swift and accurate advice and assistance at the level the user and the situation require. This includes containment to stop the spread, disinfecting to clean the system, and the capture of incident information for future use.

• Proactively notify the campus of viruses as soon as they are known to be in circulation.

• Pursue server-based solutions as they become available to stop the propagation of viruses through University systems and networks.

Departmental Responsibilities

• Ensure that all departmental computers are running current virus protection software

• Designate a local contact for departmental virus protection to assist in installation of virus protection software, education of the user community and virus response.

• Ensure that all lab computers and other shared systems are adequately protected and that someone in the department has been designated as being responsible for their maintenance.

Individual Responsibilities

• Make sure that their PC has corporate antivirus installed..

• Configure desktop system to perform frequent auto-scans for viruses (daily recommended). Be sure to include any removable media in the scan.

• Install any recommended security patches for the operating system and applications that are in use.

• Exercise extreme caution when opening attachments. Never open an attachment unless it is expected even if it is from a trusted user.

• Exercise extreme caution when downloading files from the Internet. Only download from reputable sites.

• If a computer is known to be infected, remove it from the network until it can be disinfected.

• Perform regular backups of the data on individual desktop systems